Category: C

Cobra Commander bears little resemblance to the character’s appearance in the Retaliation film, aside from some similarity to the helmet design. But I’m not going to rag on it, because it’s a dang cool toy. Cobra Commander was the first Real American Hero figure of my youth, and he’s always had a special place within my memories of what made

By Past Nastification You’re probably shaking your head right now, disgusted that I’m not calling this figure by its proper name, “Cobra Officer”. On paper, you’d be right. Technically, it is simply a Cobra Officer, released by the GI Joe Collectors Club in 2007 as one of the Night Stalkers in its “Tanks for the Memories” set. But this one,

The Desert Assault Squad set was an interesting mix of known and new Cobra troopers. Along with Frankensteined figures, the pack also included two straight remolds of the 25th anniversary style CGs. I’ll admit that I initially found their placement in a desert theme to be out of character for the type, since these guys have not only functioned as

As hit or miss as the comic packs were, I sure do miss them. Actually, I miss o-ring GI Joes at retail in general, but that’s a whole ‘nother story. I’m just glad I was able to catch a few of them on clearance back then. They are impressive looking when grouped. The Cobra Officer was one of my early

By KansasBrawler Over the years, I’ve become increasingly of two minds about the figures in the Cobra Island sets. The Joes especially haven’t held up well over the years. I was very excited to get everyone in the set, but now, I’m hard-pressed to find one that I’ve kept on display since I moved and needed to downsize my display

The Viper has a storied history of releases during the new sculpt era. One would think such an iconic Cobra trooper would have been a slam-dunk success, a license to print money where army builders were concerned. Not so, thanks to weird mold choices and color schemes. Blue gave way to greens, browns and greys, and the 1986 BAT legs

The Steel Brigade made a surprise return to the Joe mythos at the tail end of the new sculpt era. It was a welcome sight for me, as I’ve always liked both the SB concept as well as the unique helmet design. Though the familiar design made an appearance (and was removable!) as part of 2004’s Anti-Venom squad, we got

By KansasBrawler There are very few figures I’d consider missing from my childhood collection. However, the one glaring omission was the Crimson Guard. I thought that they looked so cool when I first saw them on a cardback but I never saw one at a store. Not having the Crimson Guard as a kid means I’m kind of that the

By KansasBrawler When Resolute Cobra Commander was first released as a single carded figure, I wasn’t really that interested in him. Sure, he was a bit of a different than the standard Cobra Commander, but unlike Duke, I didn’t feel there enough changes to warrant adding him to my collection. After all, I already had a lot of Cobra Commander

I don’t think any figure quite sums up the crazy possibilities (with maybe the exception of Lightning Mobutu) of what’s possible when a knock-off toy maker throws caution to the wind and goes all-out on a ridiculous concept. Witness Condor Strike, a baseball/-themed me-too corollary of 1980s GI Joe, produced years later in the 1990s. The most apt comparison I